Report from CNBC
In Brief – The Paris prosecutor’s office is investigating social media platform X for using allegedly biased algorithms. The probe by the public prosecutor follows a complaint filed by a lawmaker in Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble pour la République party alleging that X fraudulently promotes content that aligns with the ideological views of X’s principal owner, Elon Musk. The prosecutor’s office said that magistrates and specialized assistants of its cybercrime section have been tasked with analyzing the submitted report and carrying out initial technical checks on the platform. The same cybercrime unit led the criminal probe of Telegram boss Pavel Durov, who was arrested last August for complicity in managing Telegram to enable illegal transactions. Durov, who is out on bail, denies the allegations, but Telegram has since said it is cooperating more closely with police to remove illegal content.
Context – Elon Musk’s high-profile interventions on political topics in numerous countries, often harshly criticizing progressive officials and backing populist conservatives, has led to a growing chorus of political leaders, especially in Europe, and including France’s Macron, calling for him to face sanctions for so-called “election interference.” The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) regulates how digital platforms police illegal and objectionable content online. Content relevant to politics and elections, often called disinformation or misinformation by opponents, is in scope for the regulators. The DSA’s backers say that the law protects free expression, but they also argue that law’s regulation of “recommender systems”, and how a platform accelerates or decelerates the circulation of political content, is different from regulating the content itself. Of course, critics disagree. Trying to make the case that using the DSA to direct or regulate how X promotes ideological posts, including Musk’s own posts, is not actually regulating political speech, will be quite a stretch. Expect the other US tech leaders under scrutiny in Europe to encourage President Trump to take a hard line on what has long been his top digital concern.